Happy Anniversary to Us

To celebrate our first anniversary Andy & I took a mini-vaca to Galena, Illinois. We headed out around 7:30 in the morning and arrived with plenty of time to stop and have a cup of coffee at Kaladi’s before our walking tour.

At 10:00am we headed over to the DeSoto House to meet our (highly recommended) tour guide, Steve Repp. Mr. Repp took us on a one hour walking tour of downtown historical Galena.

We learned that Abraham Lincoln addressed the public from the balcony of DeSoto House and people gathered around, crowding in the very street we were standing upon.

We were told about the great floods that nearly wiped out the entire downtown area until the flood walls were built. Over the years the streets and buildings have been updated but the public has fought to preserve the history of this little town as best they can.

 

 

Notice the curve of the street & the buildings: 

 After our tour we did a little shopping. (Mostly window shopping.) I love all the cute little shop! Lots of antiques and novelties to be found. I like to look at everything but don’t really care to bring a bunch home. We did enjoy some delicious treats from the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory. Andy & I have never met a sweets shop we didn’t like. (Reminded me of when I visited him in South Texas when we were first dating; we went to this open air mall and gorged ourselves on chocolate, toffee and other goodies.)

 

Then we had a couple drinks at the Grape Escape as we watched our Hawkeyes win another game! After a couple hours of walking around we thought we’d go tour the Ryan Mansion.

 The wind was blowing and we huddled on the front porch. The sign read “No reservations necessary! Tours begin approximately every 15 minutes. Ring bell and we will be with you momentarily.” Perfect timing! It was 11:55pm. So I rang the bell and we waited. And waited. Waited some more as the wind contined to whip through our clothes. Andy rang the bell. We continued to wait. The wind continued to blow. At 12:05 we decided we were done freezing and did not want to see the mansion that badly. Guess they must not have wanted our $20 that badly either. Oh well.

As we were waiting there we discussed how cold it was going to be at the Parade that evening so off to Wally World we went to get some long underwear, gloves, a scarf, and some kind of earmuff/headband thing-a-majig. We were geared up, ready for the Halloween weather so we headed back downtown and waited for the parade to begin.

The parade was a lot of fun – TONS of costumes everywhere! Lots of fun floats but I think my favorite at the time were all the hot air balloon baskets that were shooting flames overhead; it was REALLY warm! Andy got a video, which I will try to post soon.

After the parade we walked down to the DeSoto House where we had our Haunted Dinner!

When I booked I had no idea what we were in for. There were people in full costume and full character all night! Ghosts and historical characters reenacted scenes from the early 1800s. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife even visted our table asking for our votes. Well, Andy’s vote anyway, as I would not have had the right to vote at that time. To remind me to stand up and fight for my rights, Susan B. Anthony and a couple other women stopped by to remind us to push for women’s right to vote.

After dinner we went up to the ballroom for dessert with the Paranormal Research of Illinois. This group gave a presentation and showed us actual footage of some of their investigations around Galena & Illinois. I loved it! Andy is convinced it was purely entertainment. I respectfully disagree. If you’re into this kind of thing you should visit their site and check out the audio and video clips – spooky!! The evening wrapped up just before the stroke of midnight so we drove to the Country Inn and Suites and promptly fell asleep.

Wow. What a jam-packed, fun filled day. I would highly recommend a trip to Galena if you’ve never been. Our original intent was to do some wine tasting, which is one thing Galena is known for. However, we never got around to it. And that’s okay, that just gives us another reason to go back.

I told Andy that we should plan a trip every year for our Anniversary. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday and there’s sure to be something going on no matter where we go. He liked that idea and suggested Vegas next year. Sounds good!

Have you ever done these things in Galena? What else should we put on our list of things to do next time? Where would you suggest we go to celebrate future anniversaries?